By Marc Drizin, Performance Assessment Network

 

 

Study after study has shown that being “customer focused” is the most important component of customer satisfaction; however these same studies show how woeful actual performance is in this area.  Studies by Walker Information, an international research firm specializing in customer loyalty, show that less than six in ten customers rate customer support services in the telecom industry as “excellent” or “very good”.  Another of their national benchmark studies indicated that only 50% of business executives rated customer service of their financial services providers positively.

 

When it comes right down to it, the goal of a company’s call center is pretty straightforward:  Respond to the customer’s problem or concern, and increase revenue by cross-selling the company’s products and services.  Simply put, companies entrust their current and future revenue to a group of employees who are usually some of the lowest paid and least engaged employees in the company.  However the high turnover of call center employees -- most get burned out and leave after 18 months -- indicates that organizations need to do a better job recruiting, retraining, rewarding and retaining these vital employees.

 

In terms of recruiting, call centers need to do a better job of incorporating best of class selection processes in their hiring practices.  A recent national study indicated that 98% of all employees exaggerate during an interview, and half misrepresent their qualifications on their resume.  Is it therefore surprising that two-thirds of managers were disappointed with the employee’s performance in the first year?  The fact is, the “training and experience” point method and using an unstructured employment interview including conducting reference checks are the least predictive selection procedures when looking at the overall job performance of an employee. However for many call centers, these are the most common ways prospective employees are evaluated before a job position is offered to them.

 

More predictive of future performance are pre-employment tests and assessments, including Biodata measures (questions about life experiences, school experience, hobbies), integrity tests that measure conscientiousness, agreeability, and emotional stability), general mental ability tests, and structured interviews.  These procedures have been scientifically proven to be much more aligned to actual job performance.  Spending a little time and money in the selection process can reduce the cost of turnover (averaging about $6,000 per agent), and improve customer satisfaction.  The average annual U.S. call center turnover is 38% -- which means that a 400-person call center may spend over $900,000 annually just to replace workers. Having been involved in call center management for over 10 years, I understand the difficulty of dealing with the “revolving door” created by high turnover.  However I also know that if organizations do a better job of selecting the best agents to enter their front door, customers are much less likely to run out the back.

 

 

Once hired, call centers must do a better managing the relationship they have with their employees.  According to the pan 2004-2005 National Workforce Engagement Assessment, less than half of all employees (46%) were fully engaged with their organization, while nearly one-third of all employees (31%) were unengaged.  These fully engaged workers are the ones that are strongly committed to making their companies successful, are highly motivated to work hard, and can be counted on to go the extra miles for customers, exactly the types of behaviors required of call center employees.  However, these engagement numbers drop further when reviewing these “individual contributors” where only 41% are fully engaged and a whopping 36% are unengaged.  Are those customer satisfaction numbers mentioned earlier surprising in light of these low levels of workforce engagement? 

 

So what drives workforce engagement of these front line employees, the ones who have 80% of the communication with your customers?  According to pan’s analysis:

 

·        Daily Satisfaction: feeling a sense of accomplishment, having a good relationship with their supervisor, and knowing there is a good fit between their skills/interests and their job

·        Ethics/Diversity/Safety:  being treated with respect, working for an organization that is highly ethical, and feeling valued as an employee

·        Company Reputation:  working for an industry leader, having products and services that are highly regarded from customers, and working for an organization that treats employees well

·        Effective Senior Leadership:  leaders having a clear vision of the future, being satisfied with the strategic direction of the company, and working for leaders who have high personal integrity

·        Work-life balance:  managers recognizing the importance of an employee’s personal life, paying attention to how employees feel at work,  and having family friendly benefits

 

Gartner, a leading source of research and analysis, estimates that it costs four to 10 times as much to capture a new customer as it does to provide good service to an existing customer.  And to make matters worse, seven in ten of customers that do defect to a competitor do so because of poor service, not the quality.  Business improvement gurus like to say “you’re only as good as your last transaction”. In case there are any doubters out there regarding the impact a call center experience can have on repeat purchase, perhaps research from the Purdue University Center for Customer Driven Quality can help prove the point.  According to their research, three quarters (76%) of customers who never contact a call center because they have no problems are likely to repurchase a product.  This “likelihood to repurchase” rises to nine in ten customers (89%) for those customers who had a good experience with the call center.  However, only one third of customers (33%) who had a bad experience with a call center are likely to repurchase a product.  And this isn’t just about the initial product the customers bought from the company; it affects the likelihood that the customer will purchase from the rest of the organization’s product line as well.

 

Given the importance after sales care and support is to the loyalty, retention, and repeat purchase of your customers, companies need to take a harder look at their selection process, training, and engagement of their contact center employees.  Remember, customers buy products and services from your company, but form relationships with your people. 

 

 

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